Earth-car



uli-.EMERSON EARTH GAR.

No 10,775. Patented Apr, 11,185.4.

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armar rino a R. H. EMERSON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

EARTH-CAR.

l To all whom t may concern Be it known that I, RICHARD HENRY EMERSON, of Chicago, in the countyof Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new or Improved Railway-Carriage for the Transportation and Discharge of Earth, or other Loose Matters; and I do hereby declare that the ysame is fully described and represented in the following specification and the accompanying drawings, letters, ligures, and references thereof.

`Of the said drawings, Figure 1, denotes a top view of my said gravel car or carriage. 2, is a side elevation o-fit. Fig. 3, is a longitudinal and vertical section of it. Fig. 4, is an underside view of it.`

The kind of car or railway carriage as improved by me is what is usually termed and known by the name of the long car that is to say, one having its carriage supported on two truck frames, each of which is sustained by four wheels. j

In the drawings, the platform of the car'- riage is shown at A, the two truck frames at B and C. The wheels at E, E, E, &c., and the axles at F, F, F, &c. The platform of this car is made with an open space extending through it and between the turning bearings of the truck frame, from which open space sides H, H, I, I, flare and extend upward so as to'form with the doors applied to said open space a receptacle, l, for earth, gravel or other material. The bottom of the receptacle, I, is composed of two series of doors or turning platforms K, K,

K, L,` L, L, each door, K, being about one half the width of each` door, L, and the several doors or flaps being so arranged as that each doo-r, K, shall be directly next to a door, L, as seen in the drawings. Each one of the said doors is fastened upon one j of a series of transverse shafts, a, a, which are situated with regard to the respectiveV doors and turn in boxes or bearings b, b, b, c, c, c, as seen in the drawings. l

Extending longitudinally through the middle of the carriage and above the top of the receptacle, I', are two long shafts or axles, M, N. Each one has a crank, O, xed on its outer end and it also has a ratchet or cogged wheel, P, placed on it and made to work in connection with a retaining pawl, Q, connected to the `end of the receptacle I', or made to turn vertically on a pin or screw, c, projected from suchend as seen in Fig. l.

A bar or timber, R, extends over and par` allel to the two axles before named and serves in connection with cross bars, T, T, T, to sustain four vertical crank shafts, S, S, S, S. Each of the crank shafts has a crank, U, on its upper end, while its lower end is formed with a projection or shoulder, CZ. The lower end of the shaft passes through a small' slot, e, of the width of the crank shaft, and made through the large door, L,

directly under said crank shaft. The object of this crank and its shoulder is to hold thedoor L, upward in a` horizontal position, when the next adjacent door, K, is dropped down into an inclined position. Each two adjacent doors, K, L, has-two chains, g, L, extended upward from them respectively and made of the same length and united at their upper ends to a chain, z', that winds around and is attached to one 'of the axles,

l/Vhen the cranks of the several vertical crank shafts S, S, S, are turned so as to extend transversely across the car., the several doors L, L, L, do not rest on the shoulders oflsaidcrank shafts as they do when the cranks stand longitudinally of the car, and when such is the case the several doors may be caused to fall into inclined positions by turning backward the two axles M, N.

`lhen, `however the cranks stand in a longitudinal direction the larger doors L, L, will remain upward, while the lesser doors only will fall when the axle is turned backward. This enables me to discharge at any one time but a portion of the earth or gravel contained in the car, or such as rested directly over the smaller doors, the larger doors upholding the larger or remaining portions which are not to be discharged until after the car has beenmoved forward a short distance on the railway. j

The peculiar slope which the earth within the car takes after the smaller doors have been opened and such earth` as was directly loo One of the truck frames has a leveler or scraper, V, aHiXed to it which is placed between two of the wheels and extends below their axle for the purpose of the leveling down the dropped piles of earth when the car is moved forward. Each wheel if necessary may also have a guard scraper, W, placed in front of .it and so applied as to be capable of being pressed down upon the surface of the rail on which said wheel travels and remove or throw off any dirt which may fall thereon. Such removal taking place when the caris in motion, and being produced by the car dragging the scraper against the earth. In the drawings, this scraper is shown as suspended from one end of a lever X.

Ido not claim the invention of a car with hinged or turning flaps' in the bottom, forplate or scraper to a carriage for the purpose of spreading the earth dropped from the cars, as these devices have all been used before; but

What I do claim, as my improvement is- The construction of a long car, arranged as described with two sets of doors, in the bottom of different breadths, which in combinat-ion with the chains, axles and crank shafts, and the attached leveling plate, V, enables me to discharge and spread nearly one half of the load without discharging theY whole; andto equalizethe quantities of earth dropped by disengaging the different sets of doors, which could not be done, if the doors wereI of eoual width and only one half of them dropped at one time.

In testimony whereof, I have hereto set my signature this twenty sixth day of April, A. D. 1853.

RICHARD HENRY EMERSON.

Witnesses:

R. H. EDDY, CALEB EDDY. 

